Ismene and Lycus
by boshrocks
Summary: Antigone is dead. Creon wants his daughter to be with them for the mourning. Trouble is, they don't know where she is, because she's with her husband Heracles, who's busy completing his tasks. Ismene is sent to find them. Will she be in time? reviews are
1. Chapter 1

Seeing Antigone's body brought into the palace on a slab, with Haemon still clinging to her limp body, moved Ismene to tears. She knew what her sister was like, and she knew that Haemon loved her too much to be safe; she might have known they would die in each other's arms. But neither would have died if they had only got there in time. King Creon pardoned Antigone and they were on the way to release her from her walled tomb.

But fate plays terrible tricks. By the time they arrived at the tomb, Antigone had shared her mother's fate; hanging by her own belt. As soon as Haemon saw her he plunged his sword into himself and flung himself onto her. Tiresias was right, he always is. But it seems that all prophets share the fate of Cassandra; true prophesies that are never believed.

A herald had come first with the news of the deaths and Ismene had listened sadly with Euridice, Creon's wife, deflated by her side. As soon as the news was revealed Euridice had flung herself back into the palace. Ismene tore her eyes away from her sister to watch her go. Creon was going to have three dead family members.

Sure enough a screaming servant fell into the hall, when Creon had arrived with the other two bodies, and told us of the death of Euridice. Creon was a broken man; since the death of Oedipus he had been a tyrannical man and a fearsome ruler, but even Ismene felt pity for him when she saw him wailing over his dead wife and favourite son. He didn't care too much over Antigone, never had, especially not recently. But the loss of his wife and son in the space of a few minutes cut him deeply.

Ismene fled the hall because she couldn't bear to see such despair. She wouldn't weep in public for her Antigone and her brother-in-law. That was one service she could do for Antigone. Don't show your feelings. Antigone had led her by example. Neither of them showed much feeling. Ismene now went strait to the family temple to pray to Persephone, Queen of the dead. She stopped at the entrance because Euridice was spread out on the altar, a pool of blood staining the stone.

She went up to it and lit the torches. Kneeling before the altar she prayed silently to Persephone to watch over their souls in the underworld and also to see to them all left behind, that the grief would not take them too hard. She reached out and dipped her fingers in the blood of her aunt and smeared it across her cheeks and in a line up the centre of her forehead and prayed for herself.

The torches flared and a gust of wind flew through the corridor and nearly knocked one of them over. Her left hand briefly touched the flame and she felt something enter her bloodstream. A new kind of strength.

Taking the body of her aunt off the altar she carried it back down to the hall and laid it on the floor next to her sister. Creon was sitting on his throne looking down at the bodies. Tentatively she looked up at him.

"See to the bodies. Prepare them for burial. I have learnt my lesson; always bury your dead." He said quietly.

"I'm sorry sir. This is a great loss." Ismene replied almost as quietly.

"Not only for me. You have now lost the member of your family."

"I have you, and Megara, even though she is far away. Why is it us? First with mother and father, and now this. The fates don't like us do they?"

"That's true. If I had only listened to Tiresias. If I had I could have prevented all of this. So, what now? After we bury the bodies and complete our mourning for them."

"Megara will have to be told, I think she must be here for the mourning period."

"We don't know where they are. She's with Heracles while he completes his tasks. They should have stayed here. Everything happens to Thebes. The gods could have been generous enough to give him all the tasks here."

"I could go and find them. The gods would watch over me. Sir, can I ask you a favour? I know you didn't like Antigone very much, but I truly loved her. Could you please build her a nice tomb on the site where she died? She and Haemon belong together."

Silently he nodded and she left the palace.

After she had done the necessary preparations to the bodies for burial Creon bequeathed the three of them their own separate crypt on the hill where Antigone's tomb originally was. At the funeral games Creon took Ismene aside and told her that he wanted her to go and find Megara but it was not known if she was with Heracles at the moment.

"I think you are right for this task, although I can't explain why. If you want I can produce a hero to go with you and protect you."

"I think I might need that. When do you want me to leave?"

"As soon as you wish, I think I have just the hero for you. His name is Lycus, a little known hero, but I think it would guarantee your safety for he is a brave soldier and the son of Ares. If he would accept the challenge he would see you safe."

Lycus agreed readily, being bored of Thebes, but he had yet to meet Ismene. She was out by Antigone's tomb when the deal and plans were being made.

"Why did you do it? You were always too headstrong for your own good. I don't know how I'm going to live without you. The fates have it in for our family and I don't know if I will come back from this task. Oh well, at least I'll get to see you again. I miss you already." A few tears spilled over onto the stone entrance.

She noticed a light from under the crack in the door. Prising it open she entered the dark tomb. It wasn't that dark, there was a golden ball of light hovering above the place where Antigone was laid in her stone coffin. Spread out on the lid of it was a red toga dress with a slightly darker red cloak. There was also a sword and a bow and arrow set. Picking up the sword she saw an emblem of a flame on the hilt. Slipping on the toga and cloak and strapping the sword belt around her waist and the quiver to her back, the golden light poured itself into a coronet which floated down and rested on her head.

"Thank you." she whispered to the now dark tomb and emerged into the light.

Creon and Lycus were standing around a table, pouring over a large map of Greece, debating where Heracles would be and where Megara would be. Behind them the big double doors opened and Ismene stood there wearing her red outfit. They turned and looked at her. She couldn't help staring at Lycus, and he seemed unable to stop looking at her.

He was an impressive man. Very tall, over six foot three. Strong features. Very determined looking chin. The eyes were determined as well. Brown hair and green eyes. Very handsome.

She herself was pretty, but not with enough confidence to be beautiful. Although with that outfit and the coronet she looked radiant. Her hair, similar to her sister's, was a very dark red. Her eyes were an unusually dark. This had differed from her siblings for they had all had lighter hair and eyes. Antigone and Ismene had darker hair but Ismene's was the darkest. She was tall for a woman and well formed. Her blue eyes were intelligent and it was clear she was unusually clever for a woman.

She smiled at him and said, almost coyly "So, are we going?"

Creon nodded and handed Lycus a map and led them out to the stables where servants were saddling their horses, and putting saddle bags on both, presumably with provisions. Creon handed Ismene a purse full of coins and bid her farewell and good luck to both of them.

Lycus lifted her into the saddle and leapt into his own. They were off.


	2. Chapter 2

Ismene and Lycus remained silent as they took the road out of Thebes.

"Are you really Ares' son?" she said glancing at him.

He laughed. "Don't you believe your uncle?"

"I believe him, just not you." Pause. "Does he talk to you? Your father, I mean."

He shrugged. "Sometimes."

"Must be weird talking to a god." She mused.

"Oh it is. You never know when he's going to drop by for a chat, or what he's going to look like. He always comes in disguise. He trained me how to fight, and ride."

"Have you ever been up to Olympus?"

"Are you kidding? No mortals are allowed up there."

They were riding into a wood that caught the morning sun. Lycus glanced at Ismene and was transfixed. The sunlight, filtered through the trees, was hitting her hair and face, making her hair shimmer and warming her skin. He held that picture of her, in that moment she was beautiful.

"So what about your family? What happened to them?" he asked innocently and brokenly. For some reason he was shy and rather nervous.

"You don't want to go there. Trust me. My father… was Oedipus." She hesitated in saying his name as he was well known and she was under the cloud that followed the name.

"Wasn't he the guy who killed his father…"

"And married his mother? Yes. My father was my brother and my mother was my grandmother."

"I think I remember the story."

"I don't want to get into it. It hasn't been easy living under his curse. What with Antigone and everything."

"She's your sister, am I right?"

"Was. She died recently, leaving me alone with no family, apart from Creon. He also lost his family. Now he wants Meggy. Megara, the wife of Heracles. The people we're trying to find."

"Did you want this task?" his question caught her off guard.

"About three months ago, I would have said no. Now that I have nothing left I do want it. Something has happened to me. I'm not leaning on Antigone for support anymore because I know I can't anymore."

The bushes on the side of the path rustled ahead of them. The horses stopped and skittered nervously.

"What is it?" Ismene looked worried.

"I don't know. Stay close."

The bushes rustled again and something moved out from behind it. It was a large bird. The travellers relaxed…until they saw the teeth in the sharp beak.

"It's a Stymphalian bird!" Lycus shouted.

"Isn't Heracles supposed to be killing these?"

"Never mind that now! Go on ahead; I'll deal with this one."

She looked at his determined face as he dismounted and drew his sword. Before she could make a move however the bird took flight and attacked him. He didn't move fast enough and the sword dropped form his hands. It clattered away out of his reach. He struggled with it trying to keep the mouth away from any part of his skin in case the bird wanted a bite to eat.

Acting on impulse Ismene drew the bow and selected an arrow. Carefully she took aim and winked. The head of the arrow flashed into flames and she released it. She didn't miss, although she didn't know how her aim had gotten so good. Hurriedly Lycus dropped it and wrinkled his nose as the smell of burning feathers drifted up from the dead bird.

"Did you know you could do that?" he asked panting, resheathing his sword and mounting his horse again.

She swallowed and shook her head.

"Okay then."

And they continued on their way.

That night they sheltered in a clearing. Lycus tried to get a fire going but only succeeded in creating a very small flame. Ismene took one look at it and spat on the wood. At once the fire sprang to life and burned away happily.

Lycus took one look at it and then stared at her. "Okay, now you're starting to scare me."

"I'm starting to scare myself."


End file.
